[Thursday, May 1, 2008] MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. today announced that RADARSAT-2 completed its commissioning on April 25, 2008 and fully transitioned into commercial operations to deliver advanced radar images of the Earth.

[Thursday, May 1, 2008] NASA-funded researchers have released a new "4D" live model of Earth's ionosphere. Without leaving home, anyone can fly through the dynamic layer of ionized gases that encircles Earth at the edge of space itself.

[Thursday, May 1, 2008] As far as endings go, this one's a real heart breaker. NASA's Polar satellite concludes its successful mission at the end of April with a breathtaking visible-light image of the colorful dancing lights of the aurora.

[Monday, May 5, 2008] The Applied Physics Laboratory is sending a spacecraft closer to the sun than any probe has ever gone - and what it finds could revolutionize what we know about our star and the solar wind that influences everything in our solar system.

[Monday, May 5, 2008] Cerro Culiacan, Guanajuato, Mexico is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 16 crewmember on the International Space Station.

[Monday, May 5, 2008] A new model of inner Earth constructed by Arizona State University researchers pulls past information and hypotheses into a coherent story to clarify mantle motion.

[Monday, May 5, 2008] The oceans play a vital role in the carbon cycle, making it imperative that we understand biological activity to predict how our planet will react to the extra 25 000 million tonnes of carbon dioxide humans are pumping into the atmosphere annually.

[Tuesday, May 6, 2008] The first cyclone of the 2008 season in the northern Indian Ocean was a devastating one for Myanmar (Burma). News reports stated that at least 10,000 people were killed, and thousands more were missing as of May 5.

[Wednesday, May 7, 2008] Three days after its surprise eruption on May 2, the Chaiten volcano of southern Chile was still pumping out dense clouds of ash. The plume stretches east from the peak in this pair of images, taken on May 5, 2008

[Wednesday, May 7, 2008] Following the success of the Dragon Program, 300 leading European and Chinese scientists have gathered from 21 to 25 April 2008 in Beijing in the People's Republic of China to present their results and to kick off the program's second phase,.

[Friday, May 9, 2008] Scientists have visited one of the most inhospitable environments on the planet to carry out a challenging field campaign that is seen as the key to ensuring the data delivered by ESA's ice mission CryoSat will be as accurate as possible.

[Friday, May 9, 2008] Though Yangon (Rangoon) escaped the total destruction that Cyclone Nargis brought to much of the rest of the Irrawaddy Delta in Burma (Myanmar), its southern suburbs were completely submerged on May 7, 2008.

[Friday, May 9, 2008] Explorers Club President Daniel A. Bennett will be featured on ABC's Good Morning America on Monday, May 12. President Bennett was interviewed at Explorers Club headquarters in New York as part of a piece that examined the Seven Wonders of America.

[Sunday, May 11, 2008] When astronaut Scott Parazynski stands atop Mt. Everest in a few days, he will be making note of a number of non-profit and educational organizations - among them the Explorers Club. With him will be a small Explorers Club flag.

[Monday, May 12, 2008] Tuesday, May 20th as part of Challenger Center for Space Science Education's Earth Science Challenge students and teachers are invited to join Richard Garriott and NASA scientists for a live interactive webcast discussing Earth Photography from Space.

[Tuesday, May 13, 2008] "We're now waiting for camp to be set up on the South Col - Camp 4 (7,920 meters - 26,000 feet) and some fixed lines towards the summit. We're a bit uncertain when the summit window will open - probably some time after 22nd."

[Wednesday, May 14, 2008] A new NASA-led study shows human-caused climate change has made an impact on a wide range of Earth's natural systems, including permafrost thawing, plants blooming earlier across Europe, and lakes declining in productivity in Africa.

[Wednesday, May 14, 2008] Scott Parazynski will be the first human to fly in space and summit the highest peak on our planet. We won't see a similar combination and alignment of first accomplishments again until someone summits the highest lunar peak - or Olympus Mons on Mars.

[Thursday, May 15, 2008] These photos show Scott's climbing across the Khumbu Icefall, a glacial feature that begins just above Everest Base Camp. This vast field of ice is constantly moving and is considered to be one of the most dangerous parts of climbing the mountain.

[Friday, May 16, 2008] "Scott will soon be will be one of the most extreme environments any human can traverse on our planet - and hopefully live to tell the tale. He is about to walk up to a place where the jet stream often visits - cruising altitude for jet airliners."

[Friday, May 16, 2008] NASA and the Northrop Grumman Corporation have reached an agreement that will enable NASA's Science Mission Directorate to conduct Earth science research with the Northrop Grumman-developed RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft system.

[Friday, May 16, 2008] "This is Scott again. This'll be my last entry until I get back from the summit of the mountain, hopefully here in a few days. But just want to comment on the real expeditionary nature of being here in the wilds for now 54 days and counting."

[Monday, May 19, 2008] GeoEye, Inc., a premier provider of satellite, aerial and geospatial information, announced an August 22, 2008 launch date for its next-generation, earth imaging satellite GeoEye-1.

[Tuesday, May 20, 2008] A satellite that will help better monitor and understand rises in global sea level, study the world's ocean circulation and its links to Earth's climate, and improve weather and climate forecasts, is undergoing final preparations for a June 15 launch.

[Thursday, May 22, 2008] "There I was, just 24 hours from standing atop the world's tallest mountain. The radio call from Casey had just come in, indicating that they had actually done it. I gave my pack a hoist, wincing in sharp pain in the process."

[Thursday, May 22, 2008] A geographer from the University of Leicester has produced for the first time a map of the scorched Earth for every year since the turn of the Millennium.

[Thursday, May 22, 2008] "I just got a satphone call from Scott Parazynski at Everest Base Camp. The word I'd use to describe his mood is "contemplative". Otherwise, Scott is Scott, and he just always seems to be able to find a positive way to look at things."

[Sunday, May 25, 2008] "My last 24 hours at Everest Base Camp were a blur. After guardedly muscling my way down the Khumbu icefall for the last time, I immediately began thinking about what it would take to get back home."

[Tuesday, May 27, 2008] A new launch date has been set for GOCE. The change of date is due to precautionary measures taken after the malfunction of an upper-stage section of a Russian Proton launcher.

[Tuesday, May 27, 2008] Clouds have typically posed a problem to scientists using satellites to observe the lowest part of the atmosphere, where humans live and breathe, because they block the satellite's ability to capture a clear, unobstructed view of Earth's surface.

[Tuesday, May 27, 2008] More than 20 renowned experts have joined forces to raise public awareness of the Overview Effect, a term used to describe the experience astronauts have when seeing Earth firsthand from outer space.

[Tuesday, May 27, 2008] An Asteroid Deflection Research Center (ADRC) has been established on the Iowa State campus to bring researchers from around the world to develop asteroid deflection technologies.

[Tuesday, May 27, 2008] To help scientists collect the more detailed data they need without risking scientists' safety, researchers have created specially designed robots called SnoMotes to traverse these potentially dangerous ice environments.

[Tuesday, May 27, 2008] On April 9, the Sun erupted and blasted a bubble of hot gas into the solar system. The eruption was observed in unprecedented detail by a fleet of spacecraft, revealing new features that are predicted by computer models but difficult to see in practice.

[Tuesday, May 27, 2008] Following a formidable 106-day trek across the arctic intrepid polar explorer Alain Hubert recently visited ESA to handover a unique set of snow-depth measurements.

[Wednesday, May 28, 2008] Seafloor bacteria on ocean-bottom rocks are more abundant and diverse than previously thought, appearing to "feed" on the planet's oceanic crust, according to results of a study reported in this week's issue of the journal Nature.

[Thursday, May 29, 2008] NASA scientists uncovered new details about how plasma from superstorms interacts with Earth's magnetosphere.

[Friday, May 30, 2008] Scientists at NASA reveal a new understanding of the mysterious mechanism responsible for heating the outer part of the solar atmosphere, the corona, to million degree temperatures.